New snowmobile map for Tupper Lake

TUPPER LAKE – The chamber of commerce put the snowmobile trails here on the map, literally.

Chamber Events Coordinator and part-time cartographer Michelle Clement designed the color map, which will help connect snowmobilers with Tupper Lake’s amenities. The map will be included in the St. Lawrence County Snowmobile Guide for the first time.

Clement said it is the first time the area’s snowmobile map has been updated in seven years. It will be updated again later in the season as new routes are added to the town’s existing trail network.

“There are some active groups working on some alternate trails through town and around different areas, so I want to be able to add those new trails as they’re ready,” Clement said. “We plan on eventually doing a mass production next year of the map. Once we get there, it’s going to be included in the spring in about 20,000 recreation guides we’re going to create.”

The recreation guides will highlight all outdoor recreation in Tupper Lake, including paddling, hiking, backpacking and mountain biking. It will be the first of its kind for the town.

This year, Clement only printed enough maps for local businesses to display. She said people can go the the chamber’s website to print their own, or they can stop into the chamber to have one printed.

“The main snowmobile trail is the railroad corridor,” Clement said. “That’s highlighted on the larger maps that are produced by St. Lawrence County, Franklin County and the surrounding areas, but the regional guides don’t include the smaller trail networks that help you navigate through the town. The goal of this map was to get people to come to Tupper Lake and see what’s available for dining options, taverns, gas, accommodations and things like that.”

The Remsen-Lake Placid railroad corridor is called the C7 corridor on the new map, where it appears as a thick orange line with several, thinner side-trail lines branching off of it. Those trails bend and curve into Tupper Lake, and most of them lead straight to businesses, which are also marked on the map.

Peter Edwards, trail coordinator with the Tupper Lake Snowmobile Club, said the map will help Tupper Lake’s winter economy by getting visitors off the main trail and into town.

“When you snowmobile, you like to go to more than one place,” Edwards said. “One day you might want to go out in St. Lawrence County, and ride their trails and eat in their restaurants, but the next time you might want to go to Tupper Lake, and the next day to Malone. Nobody likes to ride in the same area over and over.”